night by Ken Mitchell
College Hall by Ken Mitchell
Northampton Town-Gown relations:
Etheredge Ordinance Committee memo, PDF, page 5, Dec. 8, 2008, Smith opposes inclusion in Elm Street Historic District
Youtube videos of Smith College tearing down the Green Street neighborhood, courtesy Jeff Massimino.
SAID by Ken Mitchell, The Local Buzz January 1, 2007
The once and future streets~As a college gets bigger, a city asks: What makes a neighborhood great? by Bill Peters, The Local Buzz November 30, 2006
Click here to view a diagram of the future of the Green Street neighborhood.
Citizens Opposed to the Educational Use Overlay District commissioned two Planning Doctoral students at the University of Massachusetts to study the Geographic Information Systems map the city created and presented to the City Council September 7. Besides their map analysis, the doctoral candidates included an Excel document that contains all of the properties listed by parcel ID numbers and their corresponding square footages. One item for clarification: in the Excel documents condominiums are counted as one parcel, therefore, while we have signatures from many condo owners, the parcels are listed only once per condominium development.
They found that Citizens Opposed achieved the goal of collecting signatures representing 22.12% of the area of land 300’ adjacent to the district. This city did not include 14 properties that we submitted to the City Clerk prior to final City Council action.
Read my draft affidavit of the EU signature certification process.
In a 6-1 vote on September 7, 2006, the City Council approved the Smith College Educational Use Overlay District. As complementary maneuvers the city will now attempt to address the Historic District zoning along Elm Street and the potential for extending the Central Business Architecture District and the Central District Business Zoning District along West Street.
Click to view the Petition that would require a 3/4s vote of the City Council to approve the district.
Click to view the Development Agreement.
The public discussion on the topic, “Sustaining Community on the Campus Edge” sponsored by the Paradise City Forum on Monday, April 24, 2006 from 7-9 PM at St. Mary’s Church, 3 Elm Street, was attended by 45 people. The forum was rebroadcast several times on cable access channel 15.
“Last Staff Supper” at Green Street Cafe The reception held for the opening of the 28’ by 9’ Mural “Last Staff Supper” at Green Street Cafe was an event that truly inspired. Jeff Mack showed himself to be not only an exceptional artist, but an exceptional person of a most generous nature. His brush-work magically captured the essence of the staff, the subjects of the mural, and the same staff that waited on reception attendees.
Attended “The College/University as Urban Developer” conference held at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) October 5, 2006. Keynote speakers were the authors of the book by the same name David C. Perry, Director, Great Cities Institute, University of Illinois-Chicago, and Wim Wiewel, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, University of Baltimore, Maryland. Was fortunate to be seated with the former Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives Moira Lyons, who is now the Director of Community Outreach and Government Affairs at Norwalk Community College. The day concluded with a tour of the $11 million WPI Gateway Project, a redeveloped 11-acre former brownfield site that will feature between 500,000 and one million square feet of mixed-use space to attract academic and corporate collaborators; and the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Science’s creation of a new campus in downtown Worcester and their role as a developer of urban real estate.